House: The Daily 10

Rep. Jim Oberstar’s hometown paper wants him to come back to Duluth. The News Tribune backed Oberstar in 2006 and 2008 but this time they’ve endorsed Republican challenger Chip Cravaack, a Navy veteran. The paper says Oberstar “is hardly the embodiment of financial restraint and new direction” and says that with Republicans poised to win back the House, the powerful chairman is likely to lose clout in Washington anyway.

Florida 8th District

Rep. Alan Grayson isn’t just losing the home stretch fundraising race: He’s pumping his own money into his race. He has more than $870,000 to spend on the final two weeks, but he loaned himself $95,000 on Oct. 13 on top of the $135,000 he put in on Aug. 23.

Story Continued Below

Colorado 7th District

Outside dollars continue to pour in for GOP nominee Ryan Frazier. Now, the Fred Malek-backed American Action Network is up with a $725,000 buy attacking Rep. Ed Perlmutter. Elsewhere in Colorado, Democrats are trying to help Rep. Betsy Markey by drawing attention to the third party candidate in her race against Republican Cory Gardner. Tea party-backed Doug Aden — who’s running on the same ticket as gubernatorial hopeful Tom Tancredo — “is running on the Constitution Party line with Tom Tancredo,” says a mailer paid for by the Colorado Democratic Party.

South Dakota At-Large District

Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin’s campaign was quick to tout a new independent poll that shows her leading 41.5 percent to 40 percent over Republican Kristi Noem. But those numbers — released by polling neophytes Nielson Brothers Polling, run by two brothers based in Sioux Falls, according to the Rapid City Journal — aren’t yet weighted, and the company plans to release a weighted version later. It also shows 17 percent of voters undecided—unusually high so close to the election, especially in a state where the airwaves have been saturated with political ads — and differs sharply from Rasmussen numbers that show Noem leading by 49 percent to 44 percent with 5 percent undecided.

Texas 27th District

Outside groups are coming in to attack Rep. Solomon Ortiz, the latest safe Democrat to wake up in the final month to find a strong Republican challenge. The 60 Plus Association is spending about $147,000 here in the final ten days — more than the $145,000 Ortiz had on hand on Oct. 13. Still, Ortiz has clearly started making phone calls: The big-name PAC donations have poured in over the past two days, with a $2,000 check from Raytheon and $2,600 from the prison operator GEO Group. His campaign is also hammering his Republican opponent, computer scientist Blake Farenthold, for attending a charity event with scantily clad women while wearing duck pajamas. They’re now hitting it as an “S&M party” because its organizer, Teddie Willingham, was paddled by the girls at the party.